A fascinating tour of the complexities of 21st-century ethos! Readers are encouraged to dislodge ethos from the terrain of character or moral credibility and regard it as a dwelling, as a place of struggle. In this exciting book, Carter eloquently suggests how social movements and participant activism might intervene to generate action-oriented ethos in the most dystopian of times.

Susan Kates, University of Oklahoma

At first glance, The Corruption of Ethos in Fortress America: Billionaires, Bureaucrats, and Body Slams may seem to be yet another takedown of the post-truth, divisive, authoritarianist, white-nationalist rhetorics of Donald Trump and the contemporary right. However, Chris Carter does much more than that in this energetic and very readable book. With impressive erudition, Carter draws on rhetorical, cultural, and political economic scholarship to advocate for an already-emergent, justice-focused rhetoric that emphasizes compassion, sustainability, our collective precarity, and our responsibility to other human and non-human beings. It will be interesting to any who are looking for ways to explore, and have conversations with others, about new, hopeful ways of doing political rhetoric that are responsive to the challenges of this transformative historical moment.

Tony Scott, Syracuse University